Citation and License

BMC Genomics 2011, 12:467
doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-467

Published: 27 September 2011

Abstract

Background

Bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.] is an important cucurbit crop worldwide. Archaeological research indicates
that bottle gourd was domesticated more than 10,000 years ago, making it one of the
earliest plants cultivated by man. In spite of its widespread importance and long
history of cultivation almost nothing has been known about the genome of this species
thus far.

Results

We report here the partial sequencing of bottle gourd genome using the 454 GS-FLX
Titanium sequencing platform. A total of 150,253 sequence reads, which were assembled
into 3,994 contigs and 82,522 singletons were generated. The total length of the non-redundant
singletons/assemblies is 32 Mb, theoretically covering ~ 10% of the bottle gourd genome.
Functional annotation of the sequences revealed a broad range of functional types,
covering all the three top-level ontologies. Comparison of the gene sequences between
bottle gourd and the model cucurbit cucumber (Cucumis sativus) revealed a 90% sequence similarity on average. Using the sequence information, 4395
microsatellite-containing sequences were identified and 400 SSR markers were developed,
of which 94% amplified bands of anticipated sizes. Transferability of these markers
to four other cucurbit species showed obvious decline with increasing phylogenetic
distance. From analyzing polymorphisms of a subset of 14 SSR markers assayed on 44
representative China bottle gourd varieties/landraces, a principal coordinates (PCo)
analysis output and a UPGMA-based dendrogram were constructed. Bottle gourd accessions
tended to group by fruit shape rather than geographic origin, although in certain
subclades the lines from the same or close origin did tend to cluster.

Conclusions

This work provides an initial basis for genome characterization, gene isolation and
comparative genomics analysis in bottle gourd. The SSR markers developed would facilitate
marker assisted breeding schemes for efficient introduction of desired traits.